LITR 4533 Tragedy

Connections between Classical Greece and Judeo-Christianity

in Oedipus at Colonus & Samson Agonistes

The relations between Classical Humanism and Judeo-Christianity are sometimes most apparent in contrast or conflict, as in modern America's "culture wars" between "lifestyle liberals" and "the religious right."

However, the "worldly" and the "godly" are deeply intertwined traditions in Western Civilization's institutions and values. Sometimes one aspect is more apparent than the other, and individual preferences may exclude, but so far both empirical reason and faith traditions exist always in some dialogue with each other.

Such topics relate to

Course Objective 3. To study Tragedy in the context of Western Civilization

3a. To witness tragedy's emergence during great periods of civilization--in other words, cultures don't create tragedy because they're depressed but because they're confident enough to face failure.

3b. To recognize the contribution of "classical civilization" to secular institutions: the theater, literary criticism, democracy +

3c. To acknowledge classical humanism's interfaces with revealed religion, especially Judeo-Christianity

Essential terms:

  • modernization

  • empiricism, reason, revelation

  • fate and free will

  • humanism, Christian humanism

 


Sophocles, Oedipus at Colonus

pp. 34-35 in email edition

CREON: Not deeming this city void of men
Or counsel, son of Aegeus, as you say           
[son of Aegeus = Theseus]
I did what I have done; rather I thought
Your people were not like to set such store
by kin of mine and keep them against my will.

Nor would they harbor, so I stood assured,
A godless parricide, a reprobate    
[parricide = parent-murderer; reprobate = troublemaker]
Convicted of incestuous marriage ties.
For on her native hill of Ares here    
[hill of Ares=Mars Hill, where Paul later preached; Acts 17.16-34]
(I knew your far-famed Areopagus)         
[Areopagus = chief homicide court of Athens]    
Sits Justice, and permits not vagrant folk
To stay within your borders.

The Holy Bible, English Standard Version, Acts 17:16-34

Paul in Athens
16 Now while Paul was waiting for them at Athens, his spirit was provoked within him as he saw that the city was full of idols.

17 So he reasoned in the synagogue with the Jews and the devout persons, and in the marketplace every day with those who happened to be there.

18 Some of the Epicurean and Stoic philosophers also conversed with him. And some said, "What does this babbler wish to say?" Others said, "He seems to be a preacher of foreign divinities"—because he was preaching Jesus and the resurrection.

19 And they took him and brought him to the Areopagus, saying, "May we know what this new teaching is that you are presenting?

20 For you bring some strange things to our ears. We wish to know therefore what these things mean."

21 Now all the Athenians and the foreigners who lived there would spend their time in nothing except telling or hearing something new.

Paul Addresses the Areopagus
 22 So Paul, standing in the midst of the Areopagus, said: "Men of Athens, I perceive that in every way you are very religious.

23 For as I passed along and observed the objects of your worship, I found also an altar with this inscription, 'To the unknown god.' What therefore you worship as unknown, this I proclaim to you.

24 The God who made the world and everything in it, being Lord of heaven and earth, does not live in temples made by man,

25 nor is he served by human hands, as though he needed anything, since he himself gives to all mankind life and breath and everything.

26 And he made from one man every nation of mankind to live on all the face of the earth, having determined allotted periods and the boundaries of their dwelling place,

27 that they should seek God, in the hope that they might feel their way toward him and find him. Yet he is actually not far from each one of us,

28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being';  [Bible Gateway note: Probably from Epimenides of Crete]*

as even some of your own poets have said,    
 
  "'For we are indeed his offspring.'                    [Bible Gateway note: From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena”]**  

 29 Being then God’s offspring, we ought not to think that the divine being is like gold or silver or stone, an image formed by the art and imagination of man.

30 The times of ignorance God overlooked, but now he commands all people everywhere to repent,

31 because he has fixed a day on which he will judge the world in righteousness by a man whom he has appointed; and of this he has given assurance to all by raising him from the dead."

 32 Now when they heard of the resurrection of the dead, some mocked. But others said, "We will hear you again about this."

33 So Paul went out from their midst.

34 But some men joined him and believed, among whom also were Dionysius the Areopagite and a woman named Damaris and others with them.

Copied from Bible Gateway, 25 June 2008

 

*28 for "'In him we live and move and have our being';  [Bible Gateway note: Probably from Epimenides of Crete]*

Epimenides was a semi-mythical 6th century philosopher, poet, and prophet. Paul's quotation is from his poem Cratus. The following passage refers to Zeus, king of the Greek gods.

They fashioned a tomb for thee, O holy and high one—

The Cretans, always liars, evil beasts, idle bellies!

But thou art not dead: thou livest and abidest forever,

For in thee we live and move and have our being.

Coincidentally, the second line of this verse is cited elsewhere in the New Testament, in Titus 1:12:

"One of the Cretans, a prophet of their own, said, "Cretans are always liars, evil beasts, lazy gluttons."

The "prophet" in Titus 1:12 is identified by Clement of Alexandria as Epimenides (Miscellanies, chapter 14).

("Epimenides," Wikipedia 25 June 2008)

 

  "'For we are indeed his offspring.'                    [Bible Gateway note: From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena”]**  

Let us begin with Zeus, whom we mortals never leave unspoken.

For every street, every market-place is full of Zeus.

Even the sea and the harbor are full of this deity.

Everywhere everyone is indebted to Zeus.

For we are indeed his offspring... (Phaenomena 1-5).


From John Milton's foreword to Samson Agonistes, "Of that sort of Dramatic Poem which is called Tragedy"

Philosophers and other gravest Writers . . . frequently cite out of Tragic Poets, both to adorn and illustrate their discourse. The Apostle Paul himself thought it not unworthy to insert a verse of Euripides into the Text of Holy Scripture, I Cor. 15.33 . . . .

1 Corinthians 15:33 (English Standard Version)

33 Do not be deceived: "Bad company ruins good morals."               [Bible Gateway note: From Aratus’s poem “Phainomena”]  

King James Version

1 Corinthians 15:33 33 Do not be deceived: “Evil company corrupts good habits.”

 

Broader connections between St. Paul and Greek culture

Paul was a Roman citizen, and especially after the Emperor Constantine, the western church and the Roman Empire became more or less united, as in "Roman Catholic."

Greek culture remained a powerful force throughout the Mediterranean world in which Paul traveled, preached, and wrote. The Roman Empire itself admired and supported Greek culture, as Greeks were known as people of intellectual and artistic training.

Paul wrote in Greek. The entire New Testament was composed in Greek (with some passages in Aramaic, which Jesus spoke).

Paul was from Tarsus, a highly cultured community known as the "Athens of the East."

One of Paul's strongest (and richest) churches was in Ephesus--another wealthy Greek and Roman community where the Temple of Artemis was the largest Temple in the world at that time.

(http://www.city-data.com/forum/religion-philosophy/237951-saul-paul-roman-greek-diaspora-jew.html, 25 June 2008)

Summary:

connections b/w Greeks and Christians: individuals were often both--that is, Christ began as a Jewish messiah, but afterward Paul extended Christianity to the Gentiles or Greeks

divisions: many Greeks remained sceptical of the supernatural aspects of Christianity and instead committed themselves to worldly or empirical learning.